Lawmakers Want to Limit Non-Va. College Students

RICHMOND -- Valedictorian Phillip Wears boasted a 4.01 grade point average, served as captain of his lacrosse team and won awards for photography and television production when he graduated from South County Secondary School last year. But he still couldn't get into the University of Virginia. "He was kind of shocked more than anything," said his mother, Millie Wears of Fairfax Station. "It's a Virginia school. You have a student who has a 4.0. How can you say no?"

State legislators say they think they know the answer: An increasing number of Virginia students with top grades and impressive test scores, many from populous Northern Virginia, are losing slots at the state's premiere schools to out-of-state students.

Now, lawmakers are attempting to limit the number of out-of-state students admitted to Virginia's schools to reserve more seats for in-state students, particularly at U-Va., the College of William and Mary, Virginia Tech and James Madison University.

The General Assembly is considering providing the schools with $12.5 million in extra funds to cover the cost of the in-state enrollment growth. The schools would be required to set aside at least 70 percent of freshman slots and 80 percent of new transfer slots for in-state students.

"We're in a situation where we have the 'University of New Jersey-Charlottesville' campus and the 'University of Pennsylvania-Williamsburg' campus," Del. Timothy D. Hugo (R-Fairfax) said. "I think that needs to come to an end."

The state's top schools are lobbying against any policy change, saying they would lose millions of dollars as well as a more diverse student population by limiting out-of-state students, who subsidize Virginia students by paying up to three times as much in tuition and fees.

"We are opposed to a specific hard cap, particularly when the budget is the way it is," said Fran Bradford, associate vice president for government relations at William and Mary. "To take away that source of revenue and, frankly, to take away some of our finest students is a little bit of a challenge."

Lawmakers already are considering cutting funding for higher education by about $296 million over two years to address the state's $3.7 billion shortfall. State aid accounts for 18 percent of William and Mary's operating budget and 8 percent of U-Va.'s. School officials estimate that the proposal could cost them millions of more dollars.

"I am deeply concerned that unless the state and the General Assembly are ready to make a substantial financial commitment to higher education in Virginia . . . that what you propose will place all of our public institutions of higher education in jeopardy," U-Va. Rector W. Heywood Fralin wrote to legislators.

The Republican-controlled House included language limiting out-of-state students in its version of the state's two-year $77 billion budget, but the Democratic-controlled Senate did not.

House and Senate budget negotiators have less than a week to reach a deal on higher education and other budget issues. They began meeting Sunday night and must complete their work before the General Assembly's scheduled adjournment Saturday.

Officials at the State Council of Higher Education say each school should make its own decisions. Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) also has expressed concerns about limiting out-of-state students, and it's unclear whether he would support the proposal.